Derry City's Ruaidhri Higgins praises frontman Jamie McGonigle after man of the match display in Dundalk

The 25-year-old produced a tremendous ‘old fashioned number nine’ display at Oriel Park on Friday night, at times bullying Dundalk duo Mark Connolly and Andy Boyle with his pace and power a constant threat all evening.

McGonigle scored one, set up another and probably should have been leaving the league opener with the match ball after a superb performance.

Higgins was thrilled by the Dungiven man’s display but stressed there’s still room for improvement such is McGonigle’s huge potential.

“As a number nine performance, I thought it was very, very good. Jamie has played against Dundalk three times and scored three goals so that’s impressive,” stated the Derry boss.

“Physically he’s in fantastic condition. That’s the first game of the season and he’s in better condition now than he was in any period last season. He looks like a proper, proper centre-forward - an all round centre-forward.

“He was obviously in the gym in the off season because he was a handful and showed real strength throughout the game.

“He caused them problems all night and I think he’s a hell of a player. I wouldn’t put a ceiling on where he can go.”

McGonigle admitted that working in the offseason with Derry City’s Strength & Conditioning Coach, Kevin McCreadie has helped him immensely. The ex-Crusaders man was also quick to praise boss, Higgins, who added he would like to see the talented frontman score more ‘poacher like’ goals.

“That’s just working with Kev over the off season in the gym, so that I can try to bring that into my game more,” explained McGonigle, “My hold up play probably wouldn’t be the best but I have tried to work on that.

“Joe (Thomson) was in a better position so I didn’t shoot for once and then, for my goal, it’s something Ruaidhri has talked to me about. He’s told me he has watched back on all of my goals and I never score tap-ins so that’s something I need to work on.

“Once James (Akintunde) got into the area I thought ‘Right, get into the box’ and lucky enough I scored.

“It must also be only my fifth header in my career, so it was a weird one.”